Today, Thursday, we picked up our Toyota RAV4 rental car from Hertz and drove southwest from Reykjavik along the Golden Circle route to see three of the iconic natural and historical places in Iceland. We got a late start, first because I overslept a little after suffering a 2-hour wakeful period in the middle of the night due to jet lag. That only made us about 20 minutes late for breakfast in the hotel. But then the Budget driver was an hour late, picking us up at the hotel at 9:30 instead of 8:30 to take us to the rental off. But it all worked out alright.
Nathan drove us out of the city to our first stop, Thingvellir National Park, where Iceland’s original parliament was held. It’s also a place where the North American and European tectonic plates are being torn apart by the Earth’s geological forces and the rift can be seen, walked in, and viewed by diving underwater. The weather was rainy all day, but we had brought our rain gear so we were ready for it. It was green with moss, grasses and bushy vegetation, which covered the volcanic basalt. There were quite a few tourists but it was never terribly crowded and we found places to park in each of the lots we visited to see the sights.
Next we drove to Geysir, the origin of the name for all geysers. There were two periodically erupting geysers, one of which erupted every 5 minutes. There were also a few boiling water pots nearby and the sulfur smell was strong.
In the late afternoon, we went to the last icon of the day, Gullfoss waterfall. It was large and spectacular, with lots of spray ascending up from where the water hit rocks below.
We visited the Gullfoss restaurant at the site of the falls to get tea and snacks, and rest a bit from descending the stairs to view the falls and then climbing back up them again. We were all pretty wet by that time too. About 5:30 p.m., we started the one hour drive to Selfoss, the town where we would spend our second night. Dinner was in a food hall with many small restaurants that was a short walk down the street from the hotel, still under rainy skies. We chose another place that served traditional Icelandic food, in which I enjoyed fish and chips. It was a wet but enjoyable day.
Lori's Travels 